The Richelieu Rapids

At 10h10, we leave our little cove and start our ascent. We see Wicko, a titan at 623 feet long and 75 feet wide while Laurentia Desgagnés, a Valkyrie with a length of 738 feet a width of 105 feet is now on the horizon. 

The river is more like a long slender corridor, I keep to the and guarantees our survival nothing. Once Wicko beyond us, it sneaks up behind him to leave all the room to Laurentia. 

As we approach Trois-Rivières, we start hugging the west shore to try to minimize the current.

We now see the Laviolette Bridge at Trois-Rivières approach and decided to refuel and draining skeptical before going to anchor at the mouth of the St. Maurice. Marina Trois-Riviere offers good services. The pump out was problematic, repeatedly having to re-prime the suction pump. Eventually, we visually inspected the tank

One can stay in dock for $ 5 / hour time to go grocery shopping in town or going to pay a good little tuck. The taxi service is very reliable and efficient. 

We restocked groceries for three to four days to sit it out relaxing in the Sorel Islands.

We went out to Trois-Riviere anchorage and anchored a little further out than our previous anchorage.

Isle-aux-Coudres to Portneuf

The alarm sounded in the middle of the night warning us that the current has reversed. The anchor rode is once again stuck under the keel.

At 4:50 we finally left the island with a favorable current in a sunrise red light day.

What a great day.  We made great progress.  We advanced quickly by iron sail and then by dacron for a couple of hours.  We got the Ile Orleans and by choosing to go through the North Channel, we discover new scenery.  The water was brown and opaque. 

We had a great view of Ste-Anne de Beaupré Shrine and the Cathedral. We passed under the bridge to Île d'Orléans and near the Bassin Louise, the YQC. It was still early; we push a little further up 'Portneuf.

As we pass the Quebec Bridge, the current reverses and slowly but surely slows our progress. Light scattered rain at 2:32 p.m. 

4:30 p.m. We just dropped anchor in Cap-Santé downstream of Portneuf and just a little away from the sea. Not a small cove well protected but with a background that provides good performance.

We were wet and had no desires to go to visit the nice fancy restaurant at Portneuf that was recommended to us.  The anchor fouled around the keel again.  We had lots of scope.  

Cap-à-l'Aigle to Ile aux Coudres

It's still very nice and warm this morning with a southwest wind. Great, we'll leave a little earlier and take the opportunity to do a bit of sailing.

According to our calculations, we should leave between 1 hour to 2 hours after low tide at Pointe-au-Père around 13h30. We gassed up and departed, but he winds were not there so we returned.

We tried again at12:30, we set sail. The current pushed us three miles downstream ... excellent!

We just extend our trip so much.

We arrive at Isle-aux-Coudres at 19:00 and we managed to just barely to anchor with 4.2 knots of current.

Weird foam on the waters